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Tom Tom Club to Open Toots’ 70th Birthday Celebration

Tom Tom Club will open Toots & The Maytals’ 70th birthday celebration at Port Chester, NY’s Capitol Theatre next week. As previously reported, the reggae icon will ring in his 70th with a show at the recently reopened theater on December 7. Talking Heads members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth co-founded Tom Tom Club in 1981. From the start Tom Tom Club had roots in the reggae world. After signing with Island Records founder/reggae label head Chris Blackwell in the earl ’80s, they flew down to the Bahamas’ Compass Point Studios to record. When legendary reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry failed to show up for the scheduled recording sessions, Blackwell allowed Frantz and Weymouth to produce the album themselves with Jamaican engineer Steven Stanley. “Chris and Tina are good friends of ours for many years. and usually try to see them when we are on the East Coast,” longtime Toots & the Maytals manager Mike Cacia recently told Relix/Jambands.com “Toots and I are very excited they decided to support us on the show the show for us. Toots recorded a song for them at their studio called ‘She’s Dangerous’ a few years ago. Its a gem many people don’t know about.”